EBay fourth quarter results beat analysts’ estimates

EBay Inc, operator of the world's largest online marketplace, posted fourth-quarter revenue that comfortably beat some analysts' projections, thanks to record holiday sales on the web and mobile devices.

Sales were up 18 per cent to $3.99 billion, the company said yesterday in a statement. Profits stood at 70 cents a share, which was on expected lines.

The results point to chief executive officer John Donahoe sustaining a turnaround effort that began in March 2008, when he took over from Meg Whitman. The company has been pushing to generate more revenue from consumers shopping on tablets and smartphones, and from retailers using EBay to sell their merchandise that has seen 14 straight quarters of sales growth, and a 75 per cent rally in the shares since Donahoe took the helm.

On Cyber Monday in November, at the beginning of last year's holiday shopping season, transactions on EBay's mobile applications more than doubled from the year before, even as PayPal mobile-payment volume almost tripled. The company based in San Jose, California, charges a fee for each item sold, as also for each PayPal transaction.

EBay shares rose 2.1 per cent in extended trading yesterday after closing at $52.90 in New York. The stock was up 68 per cent in 2012.

The results came as the best year yet for eBay, a pioneering e-commerce venture established in 1995 when online buying seemed an absurd idea.